Oooo....books.....there are a lot of books I'd recommend, in no order of importance whatsoever. They're all important. (Well, the first three books I mention here, though, are important - however, the order of the rest is fairly random, with a slight bias towards the beginning of the list.)

The Bridge Across Forever, Illusions, and One by Richard Bach. Bach is, and perhaps will remain, my favorite author. Whenever I go to book fairs, thrift shops, &c, I search for copies of his books, so I can have them to give as gifts. I'd recommend reading all three of the books I just mentioned - while you may not agree with Bach's philosophy, the books are well-written, intriguing, and just ... yeah. Read them.

Ditto on Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, as well as Ayn Rand's other writing.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (someone bought me a copy of that at MSA, actually, so that was what I read during my 3 weeks, among other things)

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran.

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

What Dreams May Come and Somewhere In Time (also known as Bid Time Return, I think) by Richard Matheson.

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman?", The Meaning of It All, and "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" by physicist Richard Feynman.

I, Robot, along with the other books in that series, by Isaac Asimov.

Spoon River Anthology, by Edgar Lee Masters (check out "George Gray", a piece contained therein)

Neverness by David Zindell

A Separate Peace by John Knowles.

Fight Club (the book), Choke, and most any other book by Chuck Palahniuk

All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

Realtime Interrupt by James P. Hogan - not a classic, by any means, but excellent reading, conceptually.

The Strawberry Statement by James Kunen - for some reason I own two copies of this.

Fermat's Enigma and The Code Book by Simon Singh.

The Ender's series, by Orson Scott Card - every book in that is worth reading.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers.

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.

The Color of Light and The Princess Bride - yes, there was a book originally - by William Goldman (not to be confused with William Golding, the author of Lord of the Flies).

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

The Women's Room by Marilyn French.

The Hot Zone and The Cobra Event, by Richard Preston - and in that same vein, most books by Robin Cook or Michael Crichton, especially Crichton's Timeline.

Earth Abides by George Stewart.

Virtually all short stories by J.G. Ballard are excellent, as well.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.

Now, of course, these books aren't all classics - far from it - but I figured I'd post a good many of the books that've influenced me in one way or another (all of which I greatly enjoyed reading, which is why I recommend them) over the intervening years since MSA. (I only started keeping track of the books I'd read after MSA, actually.) I may just post a list on my site - I told Tyler I'd do this the other day, and really I've meant to for about a year now, I just haven't gotten around to it. Mm, and some of this stuff, you'll notice, is definitely AP reading material -- I've just culled some of the more interesting AP reading material. ; )

Well, there's enough to keep y'busy for a summer or two...unless, of course, you're Bess Walker, the '00 Scholar who would read more in a week than I could in a month.

-Margaret-